On May 19—21, 2009 in Tehran, Iran, the Third International Congress On Persian Gulf was held. The official programme and the abstracts of the papers are available at www.iranologyfo.net. A researcher of the IOM RAS, Dr I.K.Pavlova took part at the Congress with the paper Journeys of Yan Streise along coast of Persian Gulf. Here is the abstract of her paper:

• Researching the problems of the history of the relations between Safavids’s Iran and Europe we must observe the information of the European travelers at this period. Their accounts are very important sources for learning of the many aspects of the Iranian State in the Middle Ages.
• Like the well-known European travelers such as Oleariy, Sharden and Tavernie, the name of Yan Streise has been out of special attention of scholars until now.
• The aim of our speech is to present this person and his book, and to stress the necessity to analyze because this manuscript tells us about the European policy in Iran at the 17th century. His book shows the image of Iran in the eyes of Western Europeans.
• Yan Streise, a Holland traveler, lived in the middle of the 17th century (died 1694). He was a sailing worker in Amsterdam. In 1647, he undertook his first trip to Europe and the Far East, the second voyage was directed to Moscow and his third journey was connected with Safavid’s Iran.
• After visiting Russia in late 1660s, he reached Iran. His journey had various aims. He wanted to observe these historical places and to find the point of cooperation for the development of Holland trade in Iran, especially in South Iran. It was very important because some English trade companies had intensive trade with the Iranians. It was not by occident that he visited some of the cities at the Persian Gulf, where Dutch merchants only tried to claim their commercial operations in Iran. Yan Streise visited Persepolis, Shiraz, Lar, Gombrun and then crossed the Persian Gulf so as to reach Maskat.
• He observed historical and ethnographical peculiarities of these places and described everything he saw in his book. As was said, the last station of our traveler in Iran was port Gombrun, where Mr Streise met many merchants from India and the European countries. There were many busy commercial centers in Gombrun, too. Thus, he saw many Dutch merchants in this port. In his book he wrote: “Persian Shah regards the Dutch merchants as friends and allies. His Majority considers that he can trade with their.”
• Yan Streise was a farsighted man. He proposed the mini-economical program and found the Armenian agents for the organization of the Holland-Iranian trade. Mr Streise hoped that his country would be a constant partner with Iran not only in the trade field but also in the sphere of navigation and many others.
• Streise’s account shows that Holland was gradually gaining the main position at the commercial operations in Iran and describes in what way it restrict English influence in this region and on the Persian Gulf.
• In 1673, Yan Streise returned to his motherland and soon published his book in Holland. The style of the book is vivid and enthusiastic. It had a great success among the low and middle classes of bourgeoisie. Several years later, Streise’s Voyages was translated into many tongues.
• To sum up, we have right to say that Yan Streise was one of the first Dutch explorers of Iran. His impassioned description of this state gave the Europeans the opportunity to acquaint with Iran and recognize that they could use the Iranian potential in many fields including commercial and cultural spheres.